134 BRITISH BIRDS’ EGGS. 
TURNSTONE. 
STREPSILAS INTERPRES, Linn. 
Pl. XX., fig. 4. 
Geogr. distr.—Almost cosmopolitan: common, and, in a sense, 
partly resident in Great Britain, being most numerous on the southern 
coasts. 
Food.—Insects, Crustacea, Mollusca, and worms. 
Nest.—A mere depression in the earth, lined with a few grass-bents. 
Position of nest.—On sandy or rocky soil, in bare sandy places or 
flats covered with heath and a few stunted junipers. 
Number of eggs.—4. 
Time of midification.—VI. 
Although the breeding of this species in Great Britain 
has not as yet been distinctly proved, there is every 
probability that it does so. In the third volume of Yarrell 
Mr. Howard Saunders, after mentioning the fact that 
“birds in breeding-plumage have frequently been observed 
on our coasts, sometimes in pairs, all through the summer,” 
states that on the 28th May, 1861, a pair rose from a most 
suitable locality on Lundy Island, but that the male, un- 
fortunately, was shot by Mr. Saunders’s companion; that 
Mr. T. E. Buckley has seen the bird on the west coast of 
Harris in July, and believes that it breeds there; that the 
late Dr. Saxby saw a Turnstone on Unst in the Shetlands, 
on the 16th June, and found three eggs which he supposed 
to belong to it; and lastly that he himself, in July, 1879, 
saw a pair on a neighbouring island. 
Mr. Seebohm says :—‘‘ When we bear in mind how little 
is known of the ornithology of the islands on the wild west 
and north of Scotland, and remember that it breeds at no 
great distance from Copenhagen, it is difficult to believe 
that the Turnstone does not breed on the Hebrides in 
limited numbers.” — (Hist. Brit. Birds, vol. iii., p. 12.) 
This species almost always remains near water, either on 
the sea-shore, the margins of lakes, or at the mouths of 
large rivers, and picks up a living amongst the stones, sea- 
weed, or mud, small thin-shelled Mollusca and Crustacea 
appearing to be its favourite food. 
The egg which I have figured is in the collection of Mr. 
Dresser. Some eggs are more olive-green in tint, and 
heavily blotched with rufous-brown. 
